Presently, personal computer and console based (e.g. Sony's Playstation, Microsoft's XBOX and Nintendo's Gamecube) games allow individuals and/or groups of individuals to explore and interact with a virtual environment. The virtual environments presented in these games are highly detailed and typically present a science fiction, fantasy or historical milieu in which players may interact with the environment, computer controlled entities and other player controlled entities as part of an entertainment simulation of an alternate reality.
Computer gaming, also known as electronic gaming, began as an individual single player experience. Soon thereafter, multiplayer games were created allowing more than one player to play the same game at the same time, either cooperatively to achieve a common goal, as a competition against one another or a mixture of both.
As computers became more powerful and network connectivity (including the Internet) became more prevalent, the complexity of computer games and the number of simultaneous players increased. Today, games such as City of Heroes, Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI and Lineage involve hundreds of thousands of players. These games allow groups of thousands of people to share a virtual experience together by allowing the individual players within the group to interact with each other and the environment of a persistent or semi-persistent virtual world (also referred to as the “game world”). These types of games have become known as Massively Multiplayer Online Games (“MMOG(s)”) or Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game(s) (“MMORPG(s)”), although other variations of the name also exist.
Part of the attraction of an MMORPG, at least for some players, is the ability to create alternate personas for themselves. Often players create one or more characters and have the ability to customize their characters' appearance, physical and mental attributes, and direct the development of the character through decisions made within the virtual environment. For example, a player's character grows and develops over time as it explores and interacts with the environment and other characters within the game world.
For example, within a fantasy themed MMORPG, a player typically can choose to play any of several races such as Elves, Dwarves, Humans, or Ogres. The majority of MMORPGs also allows the player to allocate various physical and mental attributes (e.g., strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma, etc.) which in turn determines the character's abilities within the virtual environment. A player can further customize his or her character by selecting gender, facial appearance, body type, hair color/styles, skin tone and clothing. The character may be further modified through the selection of weapons, equipment and other accessories. Over time, a character's actions within the environment may also affect the character's attributes and appearance. For example, other genera of MMORPGs may use different non-humanoid representations of the player's presence within the virtual environment.
In one instance, a science fiction-themed MMORPG may provide the player with the ability to customize a spaceship or other vehicle instead of or in addition to a humanoid character used in the fantasy setting. Other MMORPGs may provide the player with the ability to customize various entities within the game world including characters, equipment and even aspects of the environment itself (i.e. the ability for a player to build his or her own castle or space station within a game world).
As a player proceeds within the game, the player may attain additional customization such as new abilities, skills, experience points, items, trophies, clothes, collectibles, or other indicators of advancement or time spent within the virtual environment game world. Even the effects of aging, scars or behavior may be reflected in the character's appearance.
To play a MMORPG, a player installs a computer program (Game Client) and connects to a network of computers (Game System) and other players do the same. For various reasons, including to reduce the risk of cheating and to control the intellectual property within an MMORPG, the Game Client often employs the use of security algorithms, encryption, and End User Licenses that restrict how a player can interact with the Game Client and Game System. Additionally, in most instances, players run their game clients on hardware that is not capable of fully realizing the graphical nature of the Game System. As a further protection against cheating, the data representing a player's character or other entities under the player's control is typically stored on the Game System rather than on the Game Client. While there are various business models for recouping the costs of developing a MMORPG and operating the Game System, players are typically charged a fixed amount to purchase the Game Client software and then pay a monthly fee for access to the Game System.